Case Study: Enhancing Inventory Management with Sage 100 Integration

Introduction:

ABC Distributors, a leading distributor of Japanese sake in the US, relies on Sage 100 Standard ERP for their business operations. To improve their inventory management and sales forecasting, they sought a solution to integrate Sage 100 with SQL Server and leverage predictive analytics.

Problem Statement:

ABC Distributors needed help understanding their inventory run rate and forecasting sales accurately. Their existing ERP system, Sage 100, did not provide advanced analytics capabilities, making it difficult to make data-driven decisions.

Challenges Specific to the Wine and Beverage Industry:

The wine and beverage industry presents unique challenges businesses must solve to succeed. These challenges include:

By addressing these challenges and leveraging technology and data-driven insights, businesses in the wine and beverage industry can position themselves for success in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Solution:

To address these challenges, ABC Distributors decided to build a connector between ProvideX and RubiCube, enabling data integration. The SQL Server’s based connector allowed them to leverage advanced analytics capabilities for inventory management and sales forecasting.

Critical for the Wine and Beverage Industry:

Understanding sales in the wine and beverage industry is significant. The industry can be very unpredictable with sales affected by many factors, such as changing consumer preferences, seasonal variations, and the impact of festivals and events. For ABC Distributors, having accurate sales forecasting and inventory management is not just about staying competitive—it’s about survival.

By connecting Sage 100 with advanced analytics, ABC Distributors was able to identify patterns, anticipate changes in consumer preferences, and maintain optimal stock levels for high-demand products. This proactive approach helped them stay ahead of the curve and capitalize on opportunities to enhance their profits.

Benefits:

Results:

ABC Distributors has significantly enhanced their inventory management and sales forecasting processes by integrating Sage 100 with advanced analytics capabilities. The solution has empowered them to make data-driven decisions, leading to improved efficiency and business performance.

Technology Adoption Trends in the Industry:

The wine and beverage industry increasingly embraces technology to drive efficiency and competitiveness. Businesses are turning to ERP systems to streamline operations, improve inventory management, and enhance customer service. Advanced analytics tools are used to gain deeper insights into consumer preferences, optimize pricing strategies, and accurately forecast demand. Data integration solutions are also becoming more prevalent, enabling businesses to centralize their data and improve collaboration across departments.

Connect with us to learn more about building analytics with data from Sage 100 for your business.

Unlocking the Power of Sage 100: Building Connectors for ProvideX

Sage 100, formerly known as Sage ERP MAS 90, has been a trusted solution for businesses since its inception in 1985. With its robust features and modern architecture, Sage 100 helps companies to manage their accounting and business processes efficiently.

A Comprehensive Solution: Features of Sage 100

Sage 100 offers a wide range of features, including:

One of the critical strengths of Sage 100 is its ease of use and powerful customization options. It provides a low total cost of ownership, making it an attractive choice for businesses of all sizes.

Breaking Down the Walls: Connecting Sage 100 to SQL Server

In enterprise resource planning, Sage 100 stands out as a stalwart solution for managing accounting and business processes. But for all its strengths, Sage 100 has a unique challenge: it doesn’t have a direct database connection. This means that extracting or integrating data with other systems, like SQL Server, isn’t as straightforward as one might hope.

The Old Meets the New: The Legacy of ProvideX

At the heart of this challenge lies ProvideX, an aging language that Sage 100 relies on. While ProvideX has served its purpose over the years, its limitations are becoming more apparent as technology advances. This is where the need for building connectors comes into play.

Building Bridges: The Need for Connectors

Companies can build custom connectors to enable Sage 100 to communicate with other 3rd party applications. One way of building a connector is by writing scripts to move data from ProvideX to SQL Server, a task that requires a deep understanding of both technologies.

The CIG Touch: Simplifying Integration

Building connectors is time-consuming for many Sage 100 users and requires niche expertise. Thankfully, solution providers like CI Global specialize in providing connectors for Sage 100. These connectors streamline the integration process, reducing the implementation cycle and minimizing downtime.

The Benefits of Integration

Integrating Sage 100 with SQL Server offers numerous benefits. It provides a more efficient way to access and analyze data, improves reporting capabilities, and enhances overall business agility. Moreover, it allows companies to leverage the power of SQL Server’s advanced features and scalability.

Data Availability Over the Web: Integrating Sage 100 with SQL Server enables businesses to make their data available over the web. This accessibility allows for remote access to critical information, facilitating collaboration and decision-making from anywhere with an internet connection.

Improved Data Accuracy: By connecting Sage 100 with SQL Server, businesses can ensure that data is consistent and up-to-date across all systems, leading to more accurate reporting and decision-making.

Faster Access to Information: Integration allows for real-time access to data stored in Sage 100, enabling employees to retrieve information and respond to customer inquiries or business quickly needs promptly.

Better Decision-Making Capabilities: With integrated data from Sage 100 and SQL Server, businesses can analyze information more effectively, leading to better decision-making and strategic planning.

A Step-by-Step Guide

For those looking to integrate Sage 100 with SQL Server, here’s a simplified guide:

Tips for Integration:

To successfully integrate Sage 100 with SQL Server, consider the following tips:

Ensure Data Compatibility: Ensure that the data structures of Sage 100 and SQL Server are compatible before integrating. This may require mapping fields and ensuring that data formats match.

Test the Integration Thoroughly: Before going live, thoroughly test the Integration to identify and resolve any issues. This will help ensure a smooth transition and minimize disruptions to your business operations.

Embracing Integration with CI Global

Integrating Sage 100 with SQL Server is a strategic move that can unlock new possibilities for your business. While the process may seem complex, the benefits far outweigh the challenges. You can streamline your operations and drive growth in the digital age by leveraging the right tools and expertise.

Remember, the future of ERP is Integration. Are you ready to break down the walls?

Integrating Apps with Garmin Watch

Concerning fitness and health tracking, integrating wearables with web applications has become crucial for providing users with a comprehensive experience. This case study explores integrating a popular fitness wearable, the Garmin Watch, with an existing web application. The focus is on enabling users to sync their Garmin wearable with a sports analytics app to retrieve and display activity data.

About the Client:

A leading sports analytics platform focused on Ice Hockey, helps users track and analyze their fitness activities. With a strong user community, Sports Central aims to boost user satisfaction by adding a new feature: ‘Integration with Garmin.’ Users would need to download the Garmin Connect app, syncing their wearables regularly with the Sports Central app. Using push notifications, the web app effortlessly fetches data, offering a smooth experience for ice hockey enthusiasts and enhancing their fitness tracking capabilities.

Problem Statement:

The existing web application needed to have the capability to sync with Garmin Watches, limiting users who rely on these wearables for tracking their fitness activities. To address this, the client sought a solution to integrate Garmin Watches into the web application, allowing users to access and analyze their activity data effortlessly.

Solution Suggested:

To address the integration challenge, the proposed solution involved the following key steps:

Build

Pain Point Before Integration After Integration
Limited Data Access Users were unable to access Garmin Watch activity data within the web application. The integration resolved this limitation, allowing users to retrieve and analyze their Garmin Watch data seamlessly within the sports analytics app
User Engagement Enhancement The absence of Garmin Watch integration might have eventually led to decreased user engagement With the new feature, users can actively engage with the web application by syncing and analyzing their Garmin Watch data, potentially increasing overall user engagement.
Comprehensive Fitness Tracking Users needed to use multiple platforms or apps to gather a complete overview of their fitness activities. The integration provides a unified platform within the web application, streamlining the process of tracking and analyzing fitness activities with Garmin Watches.

Users can download the Garmin Connect app on their devices and regularly synchronize their Garmin wearables with the sports analytics app. The web application will retrieve data using push notifications, facilitating real-time integration between the two platforms.

CI Global: Smart Integration for Enhanced User Engagement

The successful integration of Garmin Watches with the existing web application not only addresses the limitations of the current platform but also opens up new opportunities for user engagement and satisfaction. By seamlessly connecting the two platforms, CI Global assisted the customer in staying poised to offer a more comprehensive and feature-rich experience to its user base, ensuring their sports analytics application’s continued success and relevance in the competitive market. Secure OAuth authentication and a well-defined integration approach ensured a smooth and reliable connection between the web application and Garmin wearables.

Connect to know more.

Driving Success: A Guide to POS Analytics for Retail and Restaurant Growth

The Point of Sale (POS) system does more than handle transactions; it acts as a valuable source of insights. Point of Sale Analytics, or POS Analytics, collects, analyzes, and understands the data generated during customer transactions at the point of sale. It involves dissecting information to understand better how a business performs and what customers prefer.

Point of Sale Analytics: Significance in Retail and Restaurant Businesses

The right KPIs for POS Analytics provide real-time visibility into sales patterns, customer preferences, and operational efficiency. By harnessing the power of POS Analytics, businesses can make informed decisions, optimize inventory management, enhance customer experiences, and ultimately drive sustained growth.

Read this blog to know more about the right KPIs to track to tap into the potential for positive transformations.

Sales KPIs for POS Analytics in Retail

Retailers and consumer goods manufacturers have the enormous responsibility— and opportunity—to reinvent themselves and reimagine their next normal. As per the findings in the McKinsey report, numerous companies face a shortage of consumer and retailer point-of-sale data. The available assets, including internal financial, product, and customer master data, are often stored in isolated legacy systems, posing challenges in terms of accessibility and harmonization. Consumer goods companies do not have well-established data governance processes for utilizing, securing, and sharing data across the organization in accordance with privacy regulations.

Some consumer goods companies, recognizing these inadequacies, mistakenly believe that they must change their entire data infrastructure simultaneously. Giving priority to the enablers that offer the highest value is more effective and ensures the consistency of enablers across various domains.

Let’s take a look at three fundamental sales metrics:

Total Sales:

Definition: The cumulative revenue generated from all sales transactions within a specific timeframe.
Example: If your clothing store earned $50,000 monthly, that constitutes the total sales figure for that period.

Average Transaction Value:

Definition: The average amount a customer spends during a single shopping transaction.
Example: If 100 transactions occurred in a day, and the total revenue for that day was $5,000, the average transaction value is $50.

Items per Transaction:

Definition: The average number of items a customer purchases in a single shopping transaction.
Example: If 50 customers made purchases, and 200 items were sold, the items per transaction would be 4.

Sales Reports and Analysis

The right KPIs can help you generate the following reports.

Aging – Managing Shelf Life:

Example: Imagine you manage a grocery store. By analyzing sales data, you notice that certain perishable goods have been on the shelf for an extended period. This prompts you to adjust stocking strategies to minimize waste and ensure the freshness of products.

Careful Stocking Strategies:

Example: A retail electronics store examines its sales reports and recognizes that specific brands or models are consistently popular. This insight guides them to strategically stock more of those items to meet customer demand effectively.

No Stock Reports for Inventory Optimization:

Example: A home goods store monitors instances of items being “out of stock.” This analysis helps them optimize inventory levels, ensuring popular items are consistently available.

Mode of Payment Analysis:

Example: A fashion boutique notices an increase in credit card payments. This insight encourages them to ensure their point-of-sale system supports various payment methods, enhancing customer convenience.

Door Delivery, Pick Up, and Walk-In Orders:

Example: A department store discovers through POS analytics that a significant portion of their orders come through Dunzo for doorstep delivery. This prompts them to optimize delivery partnerships and streamline in-store processes for walk-in customers.

These examples showcase how a nuanced understanding of retail sales metrics and strategic analysis can empower businesses to refine their operations and drive growth.

Sales KPIs for POS Analytics in Restaurants

Boosting the operational efficiency of stores includes various initiatives, including minimizing food wastage, optimizing staff schedules, and increasing the speed and precision of customer order fulfillment. For restaurants, it’s crucial to streamline processes related to digital delivery orders, in-car pickups, and drive-through operations—channels that experienced a surge during the pandemic and are now integral to the industry. These efficiency enhancements cut costs and align with evolving customer preferences.

Let’s take a look at three fundamental sales metrics:

Total Revenue:

Definition: The overall income generated from all sales transactions within a specified period.
Importance: Indicates the overall financial health and performance of the restaurant.
Example: If a restaurant earned $30,000 in a month, that represents the total revenue for that period

Average Order Value:

Definition: The average amount spent by a customer per order.
Importance: Reflects the average customer spending, aiding in menu optimization and upselling strategies.
Example: If a restaurant serves 500 customers weekly, and the total weekly revenue is $15,000, the average order value is $30.

Table Turnover Rate:

Definition: The number of times a restaurant’s tables are occupied and vacated during a specific period.
Importance: Measures the efficiency of service and how quickly tables are utilized, impacting overall revenue.
Example: If a restaurant has 20 tables and serves 100 customers daily, the table turnover rate is 5 (100 customers ÷ 20 tables).

Sales Reports and Analysis

The right KPIs can help you generate the following reports.

Average Per Cover:

Definition: The average revenue earned per customer served.
Example: If a restaurant serves 200 covers daily and generates $4,000 in revenue, the average per cover is $20 ($4,000 ÷ 200).

Number of Covers:

Definition: The total count of customers served within a specified period.
Example: If a restaurant serves 1,000 covers per week, the number of covers for that week is 1,000.

Menu Item Sales Analysis:

Purpose: Identify popular and less-ordered menu items.
Example: Discovering that a specific pasta dish consistently sells out can prompt the chef to feature it more prominently or create variations.

Dining Time Analysis:

Purpose: Evaluate the duration customers spend at tables.
Example: Recognizing that lunch service sees quicker table turnovers than dinner may lead to adjusted staffing schedules for optimal efficiency.

Sales by Daypart Analysis:

Purpose: Understand sales patterns during different times of the day.
Example: Observing a surge in breakfast orders during weekdays may inspire introducing a breakfast promotion to capitalize on demand.

Customer Order Channel Analysis:

Purpose: Differentiate orders from dine-in, online delivery, etc.
Example: Identifying a significant increase in online delivery orders can prompt the restaurant to optimize online platforms or consider exclusive promotions.

Customer Satisfaction and Feedback Analysis:

Purpose: Evaluate customer reviews and satisfaction scores.
Example: Noticing recurring feedback about slow service might lead to staff training initiatives or procedural changes to enhance overall customer satisfaction.

CI Global: Your Partner for POS Analytics

At CI Global, we provide cutting-edge solutions tailored to your unique needs. Our Point of Sale Analytics expertise empowers you to unlock valuable insights, optimize operations and inventory management, and elevate customer experience. Partner with CI Global for a transformative journey towards data-driven excellence in the competitive world of commerce.

Applying Logistics Regression to Find Key Influencers in Inventory Run Rate

Logistic Regression assists industries like wine and beverage in determining the factors that impact the speed of inventory movement. This case study discusses the methodology to discern key influencers affecting the wine and beverage category’s inventory run rate.

Client Background

The client, a leading supplier, faced the challenge of enhancing efficiency within the distributor-retailer network. The primary objective was to increase the inventory run rate and demand for products while navigating multiple distributor warehouses. The challenge lay in discerning the pivotal factors influencing inventory run rate.

Client’s Objectives

The client sought a comprehensive understanding of the intricate facets affecting inventory run rates. They sought to mitigate stagnant inventory by emphasizing high-performing items and to refine stocking strategies across diverse locations. By leveraging this detailed analysis, they aimed to optimize inventory turnover, reduce overstocking, identify factors to improve demand forecasting accuracy , and customize strategies to bolster overall effectiveness within the competitive wine and beverage domain.

Solution Provided

CI Global leveraged its expertise in analytics & logistics and utilized logistic regression techniques to analyze the wine and beverage sales and logistics domain. Using ML.NET, (a framework for building machine learning models) the team crafted a strategic approach to uncover the key influencers impacting inventory run rates.

Methodology

The methodology used for the solution involves a strategic application of logistic regression for:

Key Factors Analyzed

  1. Brand and Item: CI Global scrutinized the impact of diverse brands and specific items on inventory run rates. This involved assessing the movement pace of distinct brands and individual items within warehouse stocks.
  2. Varietal and Bottle Size: Examining varietal variations (e.g., red, white) and bottle sizes provided invaluable insights into their influence on warehouse movement. CI Global’s analysis elucidated how these variations affected turnover rates, which helps in inventory management.
  3. Warehouse Location: CI Global meticulously evaluated the role of geographic locations in influencing inventory turnover and sales patterns. This scrutiny allowed the client to discern regional preferences and demand variations, optimizing inventory distribution across diverse locations.

Insights and Impact

  1. Optimized Inventory Management:

    CI Global’s logistic regression analysis precisely identified slow-moving inventory items, enabling the client to streamline warehouse stocks. This strategic insight allowed them to prioritize high-performing items, reducing overstocking and creating space for faster-moving, high-profit products. By optimizing stock levels, the client improved warehouse efficiency and maximized product potential.

  2. Strategic Decision-Making:

    Leveraging insights from regression models, the client made informed, data-driven decisions on product categories, brands, and geographic segments. This strategic approach empowered them to tailor strategies and inventory management, especially during peak seasons, optimizing stock allocation and enhancing product performance in the market. The ability to target specific segments and categories led to more effective marketing initiatives and resource allocation, ultimately driving increased revenue.

  3. Understanding Product Demand:

    The client understood the demand for certain products by pinpointing influential factors impacting inventory run rates. This involved timely restocking of high-demand products and minimizing slow-moving inventory, directly impacting profitability. The ability to swiftly adapt inventory levels to demand fluctuations optimized the stocking of certain products, resulting in increased revenue and improved bottom-line performance.

CI Global – Analytics Precision for Efficient Inventory

Applying logistic regression in the wine and beverage industry unlocks profound insights into the factors influencing inventory run rate. The case study illustrates how strategic analysis of brand, item, varietal, bottle size, and geographic location aids in identifying key influencers and driving informed decision-making to meet product demand and operational efficiency.

For personalized analytics solutions to propel your business forward in the competitive market, be it retail, healthcare, entertainment, etc, connect with CI Global today and unlock the potential within your domain.

Building Multi-Language Capabilities In Products

In today’s interconnected world, bridging language barriers is more critical than ever for businesses seeking to thrive in diverse markets. Building Multi-Language Capabilities in Products isn’t merely a matter of vernacular adaptation; it’s a strategic imperative. This blog delves into catering to diverse audiences understanding the challenges and boundless opportunities. From the technical nuances to understanding cultural sensitivity, this guide navigates how to enable seamless communication across borders.

Understanding the Importance of Multi-Language Support

Multi-language support in product development provides a range of strategic advantages such as:

  1. Expanded Audience Reach: Embracing multi-language support broadens horizons by reaching a global audience. Breaking language barriers enables connection with diverse demographics worldwide, promoting inclusivity and greatly expanding the user base.
  2. Enhanced User Experience: Tailoring products to multiple languages goes beyond just translation; it crafts an experience that resonates with users on a cultural and linguistic level. This makes users feel like they belong and understand, which makes them happier and more likely to stick with the product.
  3. Competitive Edge in Global Markets: In a fiercely competitive global market, offering products in multiple languages is a strategic advantage. It shows that a brand cares about being reachable and fitting in with different cultures. This makes the brand stand out and look good compared to other choices out there.
  4. Improved Market Penetration: By accommodating various languages, products become more relatable and approachable to different regions and cultures. This helps businesses get into new markets and connect better with customers all around the world.
  5. Cultivation of Brand Trust: Speaking the language of your audience—literally and figuratively—builds trust. It shows that you respect where they come from and makes them feel sure that you really want to help and understand them, no matter where they are.

What do Companies need to do to build MLC in their Product?

At the core of enabling seamless integration across diverse languages lie the vital components of multi-language capabilities. This framework pivots around two fundamental pillars:

Understanding Globalization vs. Localization vs. Culture

Understanding the nuanced differences between globalization and localization is pivotal in crafting products for diverse markets. Globalization involves designing products quickly adapted to various regions and languages, while localization tailors these products to specific cultural nuances and linguistic preferences. Acknowledging and respecting cultural differences within these frameworks ensures products resonate authentically across diverse demographics.

Unicode and Character Encoding

Unicode support is critical for effective multi-language display. Its significance lies in its ability to represent and process text from different writing systems and languages within a single encoding standard. Established Unicode support ensures that characters from diverse languages, whether Latin-based or ideographic, can be rendered accurately, enabling seamless communication and comprehension for users worldwide. Its implementation ensures that a product’s interface and content are accessible and legible across various languages.

Technical Foundations for Multi-Language Support

Building strong technical foundations is crucial for effective multi-language support in products. This encompasses:

String Externalization and Resource Files

Separating text strings from the codebase is foundational for streamlining translation efforts. This approach facilitates easier translation and adaptation by centralizing all textual content, allowing efficient modifications without altering the core code. Using separate files or techniques to move text outside the main code is crucial. It helps quickly change words to fit different languages without affecting how the product works.

Language Selection and Switching

Empowering users to choose their preferred language effortlessly is essential for a seamless multi-language experience. Implementing intuitive methods, such as language selection during onboarding, in-app settings, or automatic language detection based on what they like or where they are, makes it easier for users. Switching between languages within the interface ensures a fluid user experience, allowing individuals to navigate effortlessly and engage with the product in their language of choice.

Collaborate with Localization Experts

Working well with translation teams and language experts is important to make sure that a product’s translation is accurate and fits different cultures. These experts know languages well and understand cultures, which is crucial for making translations that go beyond just words. This teamwork links the product with its different users, making sure the message feels true for each language community. By providing these experts with comprehensive context and guidelines, they can capture the brand’s style and meaning, making users all over the world feel more connected.

Ensure Consistency and Adaptability

Making sure that users get the same experience in every language is important to earn their trust. Working closely with translation teams helps keep the design and how the product works consistent, making it easier to use and familiar for everyone. Listening to feedback from different groups of users helps make ongoing improvements. Companies use this feedback to make the design better, consider different cultural details, and meet what users want as things change. Doing this keeps people interested and shows that the company really cares about making things that users like.

CI Global – Connecting your Company to the World

The journey toward creating accessible, user-centric experiences goes beyond language barriers, delivering your product across diverse audiences. At CI Global, we understand the power of linguistic diversity and its impact on global outreach. Elevate your product’s global presence with our expertise in multi-language support. Explore how CI Global can enhance your product’s accessibility and resonance worldwide.

Automating Creation of ACH Reports by POS Systems

In the franchise business, Royalty/ACH reports are essential to ensure smooth financial operations. However, manually generating ACH reports can be daunting and tedious, especially when there are a large number of stores. In this case study, we will show you how CI Global helped a Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) automate the creation of ACH reports by integrating a cloud-based POS system. We will also highlight the solution’s benefits, the challenges it addressed, and how it improved the ACH report submission process’s efficiency, accuracy, and compliance.

The Customer

The customer is in the QSR industry with 20+ stores across multiple locations spread across multiple states. Each store has a point-of-sale (POS) system that records the sales transactions and generates reports. A crucial aspect of their financial obligations involves submitting a weekly Automated Clearing House (ACH) report to the corporate office. This mandatory report is essential for franchise royalty compliance. The ACH report involves calculation of royalty for each store by including not only the sales but the marketing and operational cost also. The parameters are set by the corporate office and vary from store to store.

What are ACH Reports and Why are they Important for Franchise Businesses?

ACH reports play a pivotal role in franchise business operations. These royalty reports outline the fees owed by franchisees to the franchisor for utilizing the brand, system, and support provided.

Key points:

Challenges Faced by the Customer

These are some of the challenges that were faced by the customer.

Downloading the sales report from the POS system

The customer had to log in to the POS system of each store and download the sales report for the desired period. This process was tedious and time-consuming, as the customer had to repeat the same steps for 20+ stores. They also needed to securely store and organize the downloaded royalty reports, necessitating extra effort and space management.

Applying the franchise cost formula to each sales report

The customer had to apply the franchise cost formula to each sales report, which involved calculating the royalty, operational cost, and marketing fee based on a percentage of sales. They had to manually enter each store’s sales data and percentage values, which was prone to errors and inconsistencies. They also had to ensure the franchise cost formula was updated and accurate.

Consolidating the ACH report for all 23 stores

The customer had to consolidate the ACH report for all 23 stores, which involved adding up the franchise cost for each store and creating a summary report. The customer had to format and present the report clearly and professionally. The manual process took about three days to complete every week, posing a notable drain on resources and productivity.

Solution Provided by CI Global

CI Global implemented a transformative solution by integrating Linga POS, a cloud-based Point of Sale system with RubiCube, to automate ACH report generation for the client. Linga POS is a comprehensive POS system that provides features such as inventory management, loyalty programs, online ordering, and analytics. Microsoft Fabric’s Data Lakehouse, a platform combining the best of data warehouses and data lakes was used to provide reliable and scalable data storage and processing
The devised solution capitalized on the synergies of Linga POS and RubiCube to automate ACH report generation. The solution involved the following steps:

Results and Benefits

The solution provided by CI Global resulted in several benefits for the client, such as:

  1. Time and effort saving

    2. The solution eliminated the need to manually download and process the sales reports, which saved much time and effort. The client estimated that the solution reduced the time required to generate the ACH report from three days to a few minutes, significantly improving productivity and performance. The reduced efforts also increased profits as the automation saved almost a week of effort in resources every month.

  2. Increased accuracy

    3. The solution ensured the accuracy and consistency of the ACH report, which reduced the risk of manual errors. It also verified that the ACH report was consistent with the sales data and the franchise cost formula, avoiding discrepancies. The solution increased the quality and reliability of the royalty report, which enhanced its reputation and credibility.

  3. Meeting standards and visibility

    4. The report fulfilled the statutory obligations that required the client to pay a certain percentage of their sales to the corporate office as franchise fees. It also gave the client a clear and detailed insight into how each store and the entire chain performed regarding sales, revenue, and profitability. The report helped the client to monitor and evaluate their business operations and customer satisfaction.

CI Global – Empowering Projects of Future

The solution reduced the manual effort, increased the accuracy, enhanced the visibility, and improved the compliance of the franchise payments. The client was satisfied with the solution and appreciated the value of the royalty reports delivered. CI Global’s expertise and professionalism are evident in this case study. If you want to learn more about our services or how we can help you achieve your goals for your Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) or retail hubs, visit our website and get in touch with us today.

Leveraging POS for Data Analytics

In today’s business market, combining Point of Sale (POS) systems with data analytics is a game-changer. With the rise of consumer experience-focused markets such as the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry, understanding the shifts and patterns of buyers’ preferences has become more crucial. Think of it as merging two super utilities: the POS system, which records all those transactions, and data analytics, the enabler that helps make sense of that info. It’s not just about past sales; it’s about using that data to figure out what customers might want next and how to run things better. This helps businesses predict future trends and enhance customer experience.

Let us explore how blending POS systems with data analytics reshapes the way businesses understand their customers and make more innovative moves in the ever-changing world of commerce.

Understanding POS Systems

A point of sale (POS) system is a comprehensive software and hardware solution designed to assist businesses in handling transactions, managing inventory, and generating reports. It seamlessly integrates with other devices and platforms, such as credit card readers, mobile phones, and cloud services. A POS system generates various types of data, such as

Importance of Data Analytics in Business Operations

Data analytics is pivotal in modern business operations by providing crucial insights. Without leveraging data analytics, businesses risk operating in the dark, lacking vital information to understand consumer behavior and internal processes. This absence of analytical insights can hamper a company’s ability to optimize strategies, leading to inefficient resource allocation and potential financial losses. Data analytics also streamlines the decision-making processes by providing clear, data-driven analytics, aiding in identifying patterns, trends, and correlations that might not be immediately apparent. It has become integral to business operations by enabling businesses to recognize and manage risks, proactively adapt to market fluctuations, and improve overall productivity.

Integrating POS Systems for Data Analytics

Integrating Point of Sale (POS) systems with data analytics involves a blend of tools and techniques that uncover various insights crucial for businesses.

Techniques like data mining, predictive modeling and trend analysis help derive meaningful observations from this combined data. This integration isn’t merely about merging data but unlocking actionable information. By providing insights into consumer preferences and guiding strategic decisions, it empowers businesses to make thoughtful choices and enhance operational effectiveness in a highly competitive market.

Benefits of Integrating POS with Data Analytics

Let’s explore the advantages of integrating POS with data analytics, focusing on how it enhances business insights and strategy.

Tracking And Optimizing Product Mix

Integrating POS systems with data analytics offers a decisive advantage in tracking and optimizing the product mix for businesses. POS systems and data analytics integration helps businesses to:

Pricing And Promotions

POS analytics insights yield substantial benefits in pricing and promotions for businesses. POS systems and data analytics integration enable businesses to:

Segmenting and personalizing customer offers and communications

Combining POS systems with data analytics helps tailor and personalize customer offers, suggestions, and communications for businesses. POS systems and data analytics integration help businesses to:

Automating And Accessing Reporting And Dashboarding

Merging POS systems with data analytics provides a notable edge in automating and accessing reporting and dashboarding for businesses.

CI Global – Pathway to more Innovative, Data-Driven Success

As the holiday season approaches, businesses are gearing up for increased customer activity and dynamic market shifts. The continued evolution of POS and analytics integration offers a transformative pathway, allowing businesses to harness valuable data from transactions, inventory, customers, and employees. The opportunity for making better decisions and being more effective, particularly with the use of analytics, is right ahead of us.

Now is the time to equip your business for the festive rush, understand customer behaviors, and predict their preferences. Seamlessly blending efficiency and innovation, our solutions streamline operations and provide crucial insights for strategic decision-making.

Gear up for a successful December by embracing the power of data-driven strategies. Visit our website and explore how CI Global can be your partner in achieving data-driven success for your Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) or retail outlet this holiday season and beyond.

Guidelines for Developing a Product Backlog for an MVP

In the ever-evolving product development landscape, the term “MVP” is a testament to innovation and practicality. MVP, or the Minimum Viable Product, isn’t merely a buzzword. It is a fundamental concept in product development, particularly in the realm of startups and agile methodologies. An MVP is the simplest, most basic version of a product or application that can be built to fulfill a specific set of goals or solve a particular problem. Think of it as a guiding star for businesses in today’s complex markets. It helps you minimize risks and stay on track with your business goals.

In this blog, we’ll explore and understand the crafting of a successful MVP through developing a well-honed product backlog.

The Product Backlog Basics

The product backlog is the bedrock of effective product development, bringing profound strategic value to the table. It effectively manages the prioritization, planning, and adaptation of evolving project requirements. This dynamic repository doesn’t merely stand as a static inventory but rather evolves in response to market forces and evolving user needs. It provides clarity and transparency, fostering efficient teamwork and collaboration among teams and stakeholders, ensuring the project stays on track toward its goals with precision. It leads the project to success by carefully crafting a list of features and tasks that determine what the product will ultimately deliver to the user.

Components Of A Backlog

Component Description
User Stories Narrative descriptions of specific user interactions or features, including what the user wants to accomplish and why.
Prioritization Ranking the user stories based on their importance and impact on the MVP.
Acceptance Criteria Defined conditions that must be met for a user story to be complete.
Estimates Effort or time estimates required for each user story.
Stakeholder Input Insights, demands, and contributions from key stakeholders like users, product owners, and business analysts.
Dependencies Identification of any interdependencies between user stories or tasks that may impact the order of implementation.
Risk Assessment Documentation of potential risks and assumptions related to the MVP and its features.
Business Value Assigned value or score to each user story to quantify its business impact.
Effort-to-Value Ratio A calculation that compares the estimated effort required to implement a user story with its expected business value.
Release Planning Determination of which user stories will be included in specific MVP releases or iterations.

Steps To Consider While Creating A Product Backlog For An MVP

Defining Your Vision:

A clear product vision in MVP development provides purpose and direction. Defining the problem your product addresses ensures a precise focus on solving genuine user needs, key to an effective MVP.

User-Centered Approach:

User research is pivotal in MVP creation, as it uncovers user needs and preferences. Based on research, creating user personas adds depth to user understanding and aids MVP decision-making by ensuring alignment with real user expectations.

Prioritizing Features:

Identifying and prioritizing core features involves assessing user value, feasibility, and business impact. The MoSCoW method (Must-haves, Should-haves, Could-haves, Won’t-haves) helps classify features by importance, guiding prioritization and resource allocation in line with project goals. This prioritization method guides sprint planning, determining which features are assigned to each sprint in alignment with project goals.

Creating Detailed User Stories:

Breaking features into user stories involves defining user roles, goals, and tasks. Clear acceptance criteria are vital, as they set expectations and ensure the user story is complete and aligned with project objectives and user needs.

Estimation and Resource Planning:

Estimation methods like story points and time-based estimates quantify effort, while resource allocation decisions include team size, budget, and expertise. This significantly impacts MVP development by influencing its speed, scope, and adaptability to meet strategic objectives and user needs.

Stakeholder Alignment:

Stakeholder involvement in backlog creation fosters collaboration and ensures diverse perspectives. Alignment on MVP goals and scope is achieved through clear communication, regular meetings, and sharing insights to ensure a shared vision and project success.

Flexibility and Adaptation:

The MVP process is iterative and requires constant refinement. Flexibility is vital as it allows for adapting the backlog based on user feedback, market changes, and evolving priorities. This helps the product remain responsive and aligned with goals.

Development and Testing:

Agile methodologies, like Scrum, prioritize iterative development and continuous improvement. Collaboration between development and testing teams is crucial for seamless integration, efficient issue resolution, and delivering a high-quality MVP that meets user expectations.

Continuous Feedback Loop:

The continuous feedback loop gathers insights from users through surveys, interviews, and analytics. It guides improvements, keeps the MVP aligned with evolving user needs, and ensures stakeholders, such as the scrum master and product owner, remain in sync.

Launch and Monitoring:

Releasing the MVP involves deployment to users, often in phases or sprint-based approaches. Monitoring performance and gathering data post-launch is vital for evaluating user engagement, identifying issues, and making informed iterations to optimize the product’s success.

Post-Launch Strategy:

After MVP launch, iterate based on feedback and refine features to help expand to reach a wider audience. The MVP serves as a foundation; incorporating enhancements is critical for the ongoing evolution and growth of the product.

CI Global – Empowering Excellence, Elevating Results

Developing a successful MVP is a strategic endeavor that hinges on a clear product vision, a dynamic product backlog, and user-centric principles. Ensuring the basics and foundation are solid will pave the way to delivering a product that resonates with your audience.

At CI Global, we understand the complexities and nuances of MVP development. Our expertise in crafting impactful product backlogs, aligning stakeholders, and driving projects toward excellence can be your competitive edge. Explore our services on our website to navigate product development effectively.

Building MVP for Sports Team Management

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, the agile methodology, combined with the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) concept and a dynamic product backlog, has become the gold standard for product development. Agile’s iterative and customer-centric approach allows companies to respond swiftly to changing market needs, while the MVP and backlog framework ensures efficient prioritization and continuous improvement.

Let’s delve deeper into the case study on how this strategic combination was implemented for a customer.

The Customer

Our customer, a youth sports management company founded by passionate ice hockey enthusiasts, aimed to streamline team league and match management. The customer sought an application to simplify scheduling, player coordination, and game tracking. This case study explores how we at CI Global understood their vision, leading to the creation of an efficient and user-friendly sports management application.

What Was The Customer’s Requirement?

The customer sought a comprehensive solution comprising two key components serving registered and non-registered stakeholders, ultimately enhancing the management of sports events.

Requirement One: Scheduling Application Requirement:

Requirement Two: Arena Software Requirement:

What Were The Overall Challenges Faced?

  1. Customer’s Non-Technical Background:
    The customer’s limited technical expertise posed an initial challenge. Addressing their inherently technical sports management needs necessitates clear communication and translating complex concepts into user-friendly terms.
  2. Scalability For Future Growth:
    To ensure the MVP’s architecture is functional and ready for future growth, meticulous planning and precise execution were essential. Neglecting scalability in the initial design would lead to costly and time-consuming rework.
  3. Re-Prioritizing Features for MVP:
    Throughout the project, the customer continuously uncovered and recognized additional requirements beyond the initial scope, posing a challenge for aligning expectations and project planning. This shift in priorities within the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) required a recalibration of sprint planning.

MVP Development Process

CI Global planned the MVP development process by embracing the agile methodology, with a continuously evolving product backlog, allowing seamless adaptation to changing requirements and priorities. The designated product owner controlled the backlog, strategically prioritizing features in alignment with project goals and expectations.

To ensure the seamless execution of this comprehensive strategy, the project manager/scrum master played a pivotal role in setting up the sprint planning sprint execution while facilitating effective communication within the development team. Scrum master’s expertise was essential in maintaining the project’s dynamic nature and customer-centric approach. The planning extended across multiple quarters. A well-defined roadmap, exemplified by dividing the project into 12 sprints, was created as per the customer’s prioritized requirements.

Why Was Agile The Way To Go?

Agile was chosen as the way forward due to its flexible and iterative project management approach that promotes adaptability, regular collaboration with the customer, and incremental development, allowing teams to respond effectively to changing requirements.

Here is why agile methodology proved effective for this project over waterfall methodology:

Agile Aspect Waterfall
Agile offers flexibility to adapt to changes. Flexibility Waterfall follows a rigid structure, making changes challenging once the project begins.
Agile emphasizes iterative progress, allowing stakeholders to review work regularly. Iterative Progress Waterfall proceeds in linear phases with no room for intermediate validation.
Agile promotes continuous customer involvement, creating the product aligns better with customer expectations. Customer Collaboration Waterfall typically involves minimal customer interaction until project completion.
Agile adapts to evolving requirements, ensuring the project remains relevant. Adaptability Waterfall’s fixed scope can lead to a product that may not meet current market needs if requirements change during development.

Results and Benefits

CI Global successfully alleviated the following challenges for the customer by implementing agile methodology and best practices:

Challenge 1:

Understanding Customer Requirements From The Eyes of Sports Coach:

CI Global excelled in bridging the gap between customer needs fostering effective communication between the development team and stakeholders. We meticulously assessed the feasibility and priority of the customer’s requirements.

Benefits:

Challenge 2:

Scalability For Future Growth:

Successfully integrating scalability into the MVP’s architecture involved careful planning during the initial design phase. The scrum master ensured that the architecture could accommodate future growth by implementing flexible, modular components and optimizing system resources for efficient scaling as needed. This foresight minimized the risk of costly redesign and reengineering, assuring the customer of a cost-effective and agile solution.

Benefits:

Challenge 3:

Prioritizing Requirements Within The MVP, Leading To Adjustments In Sprint Planning:

The customer identified additional requirements as the project progressed, prompting CI Global to adapt sprint planning. The scrum master analyzed available resources, engaged in discussions with the customer, and prioritized the backlog items for the next sprint to ensure timely accommodation. This adjustment prioritized incorporating these evolving requirements, particularly emphasizing compliance within the MVP.

Benefits:

CI Global – Excellence Through Innovation

By adopting the agile methodology, maintaining a dynamic product backlog, and adapting to changing requirements, CI Global delivered an effective MVP, meeting expectations. This approach addressed the customer’s evolving needs while keeping the development process within budget.

CI Global’s commitment to innovation and customer-centric solutions shines through in this case study. If you’re interested in similar services or exploring how we can elevate your projects, visit our website and contact us today.

Analyzing reviews using sentiment analysis

Imagine having the power to step into the minds of your customers and gain a profound understanding of their sentiments toward your product or service. Traditional star ratings or point scales only scratch the surface, leaving you wanting deeper insights. This is precisely where sentiment analysis emerges as your secret weapon.

Sentiment analysis, a remarkable tool in data analytics, allows us to decode the emotions and opinions expressed in textual reviews and feedback. It’s the compass guiding companies towards informed decision-making. Picture it as your very own emotional thermometer for customer feedback.

In 2020, around 54% of companies reported implementing technologies for analyzing customer sentiment from reviews and social media. This adoption rate is projected to surpass 80% by the year 2023 – Bain&Company.

Whether gauging the success of a new product launch, fine-tuning marketing strategies, or enhancing customer service, sentiment analysis equips companies and data analysts with a reliable means to uncover valuable insights from the sea of unstructured data. By understanding sentiment analysis and exploring its applications and best practices, we realize its positive impact on your organization’s success.

The Impact of Customer Reviews

In the digital age, the impact of customer reviews on businesses is nothing short of transformative, reshaping the way companies operate and thrive in today’s competitive landscape.

Digital Word-of-Mouth: They function as today’s equivalent of word-of-mouth recommendations.

Shaping Decisions: Reviews significantly influence consumer purchasing decisions and shape brand perceptions.

Reputation and Trust: Online reviews can either boost or damage a company’s reputation and customer trust.

Positive and Negative Reviews: Positive reviews establish trust and attract new customers while reinforcing loyalty among existing ones. Conversely, negative reviews can deter potential buyers and harm a company’s credibility.

Hidden Insights: Customer feedback contains valuable insights beyond star ratings.

Nuanced Opinions: It includes nuanced opinions and suggestions that can guide product improvements, marketing strategies, and service enhancements.

Customer Alignment: These insights help businesses align more closely with customer needs and preferences.

Vital Intelligence: In the digital age, customer reviews are more than just comments; they are crucial sources of intelligence that can determine a company’s success.

Consumer Trust: Positive reviews build trust in your brand, making potential customers more likely to choose your product or service.

Increased Sales: Favorable reviews can boost sales, as they serve as social proof of a product’s quality and reliability.

Types of sentiment analysis

Sentiment analysis can be categorized into various types based on the scope and focus of the analysis. It encompasses different specialized approaches for assessing and understanding emotions in text.

Here are some common types:

Document-Level Analysis: This method gauges the overall sentiment of an entire document or text, offering a broad emotional perspective.

Example: Assessing customer reviews for a new restaurant to determine whether the overall sentiment is positive, negative, or neutral.

Sentence-Level Analysis: Sentence-level analysis evaluates sentiment on a per-sentence basis, revealing changing emotions within the text.

Example: Parsing a movie review to identify sentiment in each sentence, discerning both positive and negative opinions.

Aspect-Based Analysis: This approach breaks down sentiment into specific aspects, such as product features, providing granular insights.

Example: Examining smartphone reviews to pinpoint sentiments related to aspects like camera quality, battery life, or design.

Multimodal Analysis: Multimodal sentiment analysis combines text with other data, like images, for comprehensive sentiment understanding.

Example: Analyzing user-generated content with text comments and associated images to gain a holistic sentiment perspective.

Fine-Grained Analysis: Fine-grained sentiment analysis captures nuanced sentiment intensities, going beyond positive or negative classifications.

Example: Classifying movie reviews with distinctions like “very positive” or “slightly negative” to capture subtle sentiments.

Emotion Analysis: This approach categorizes sentiment into specific emotions (e.g., joy, anger), offering a deeper emotional understanding.

Example: Detecting emotions in social media posts, differentiating between “joy,” “anger,” or “fear” expressions.

Temporal Analysis: Temporal sentiment analysis tracks sentiment changes over time, revealing trends and fluctuations.

Example: Monitoring product launch sentiment on social media to understand evolving public perception.

Cross-Lingual Analysis: Cross-lingual sentiment analysis assesses sentiment in multiple languages, providing global insights.

Example: Analyzing customer feedback in diverse languages to understand sentiment across linguistic backgrounds.

Industry-Specific Analysis: Tailored sentiment analysis models focus on specific industries, ensuring relevance and accuracy.

Example: Analyzing patient feedback in healthcare to gauge sentiment about hospital services or treatments.

Custom Analysis: Custom sentiment analysis trains models on domain-specific data for precision and relevance.

Example: Customizing sentiment analysis for a financial institution to analyze stock market news and social media data in the finance domain.

Applications of Sentiment Analysis in Decision-Making

Sentiment analysis is a powerful tool that influences decision-making across various fields. Explore its key applications in the following areas.

Business and Marketing

Sentiment analysis in business and marketing is crucial for data-driven decision-making. It provides insights into customer perceptions, helping refine marketing strategies and tailor product offerings.

Effective Sentiment Analysis Examples:

  1. Document-Level Analysis: To gauge overall customer sentiment in product reviews, surveys, or feedback.
  2. Sentence-Level Analysis: For assessing the sentiment within individual customer support interactions and reviews.

Customer Service

Sentiment analysis aids customer service by understanding and prioritizing customer sentiment within support inquiries and reviews, leading to improved service quality and enhanced customer satisfaction.

Effective Sentiment Analysis Examples:

  1. Sentence-Level Analysis: To assess sentiment within individual customer support interactions and reviews.
  2. Aspect-Based Analysis: For pinpointing specific issues in customer feedback, such as product features or service quality.

Social Media Analysis

Social media sentiment analysis is essential for monitoring brand reputation and real-time public sentiment. It helps in crisis management, campaign assessment, and maintaining a positive online presence.

Effective Sentiment Analysis Examples:

  1. Document-Level Analysis: For evaluating overall sentiment trends around a brand or campaign.
  2. Emotion Analysis: To categorize sentiment into specific emotions like joy, anger, or fear, providing a deeper emotional understanding of social media posts.

Measuring the Impact of Sentiment Analysis

Measuring the impact of sentiment analysis is vital for decision-makers. Calculate ROI by comparing costs to benefits, like increased revenue or customer satisfaction from informed decisions. Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as customer satisfaction scores, sentiment trends, and engagement metrics. These metrics reflect the tangible effects of sentiment analysis on service quality, marketing campaigns, and overall success, helping decision-makers gauge its concrete impact.

Among various customer insights tools, using tools that enable companies to perceive customer emotions and comprehend their viewpoints, such as sentiment analysis, online behavior tracking, or facial/voice recognition, exhibits the most robust correlation with company revenue growth.

Benefits of Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis offers a spectrum of benefits for businesses and decision-makers.

CIG – Unlocking Insights, Powering Decisions

Sentiment analysis is an indispensable tool in today’s data-driven world, revolutionizing how businesses make decisions and connect with their customers. Its power to decipher emotions hidden within text makes it a game-changer for brand success, marketing prowess, and customer satisfaction.

If you’re eager to harness the full potential of sentiment analysis and unlock the doors to data-driven excellence, we invite you to explore further with CI Global. Visit our website today to discover how CI Global can transform your data into a strategic advantage. Your journey to data-driven success begins here!

Improving Customer Experience In Hotels/Resorts By Analyzing Customer Feedback

Summary

Integrating Property Management Systems (PMS) and sentiment analysis for customer feedback represents a groundbreaking approach that harnesses technology to enhance the hospitality industry’s ability to understand and respond to guest experiences.

Background

The front office in a hotel serves as the nerve center of a hotel’s operations, collecting vast amounts of data on reservations, check-ins, check-outs, and more. Property management systems (PMS) collect vast amounts of data. Sentiment analysis leverages natural language processing and machine learning to decipher the PMS data, such as customer feedback from online reviews, surveys, or direct communication.

This fusion of PMS and sentiment analysis empowers hotels to transform raw data into actionable insights.

Problem statement

The hospitality industry, particularly hotels, faces a pressing challenge: gathering and analyzing customer feedback effectively. While customer input offers invaluable insights into guest experiences and preferences, managing feedback from diverse sources, including online reviews, surveys, and direct interactions, is the real challenge. This data influx presents significant hurdles, such as data collection, organization, and analysis.

Many hospitality establishments struggle with the time-consuming manual process of traditional feedback management, leading to delays in response and missed opportunities to enhance guest satisfaction. Our clients, representing a broad spectrum of hospitality establishments, seek an automated solution to streamline feedback management, allowing personalized and prompt responses, ultimately enhancing guest experiences and fostering loyalty.

Data Collection And Integration Process

Sentiment Analysis Algorithms

In our project, we employed a range of sentiment analysis algorithms to gauge the emotional tone of customer feedback data. Three prominent algorithms were implemented in Python: textBLOB, Vader, and NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit).

Sentiment Analysis Implementation

The implementation of sentiment analysis in our project involved a systematic process to extract valuable insights from customer feedback data.

  1. Data Preprocessing: The first step involved data cleaning and preparation, where noise and irrelevant information were removed from customer feedback data to ensure that the sentiment analysis algorithm worked with high-quality data.
  2. Tokenization: The feedback text was divided into individual words or tokens, making it easier for the sentiment analysis algorithm to process the text.
  3. Sentiment Scoring: Using the selected sentiment analysis algorithm (NLTK in our case), each token or sentence in the feedback was assigned a sentiment score, indicating whether it was negative, neutral, or positive.
  4. Aggregation: Sentiment scores for individual tokens or sentences were aggregated to determine the overall sentiment of the entire feedback. This step provided an overall sentiment classification for the feedback.
  5. Example Categorization: A review containing “The room was clean and comfortable” was categorized as positive, while “The service was slow and disappointing” was classified as negative.
  6. Automation: Automation played a key role in streamlining this process. The sentiment analysis was applied automatically to each feedback item, allowing for swift and consistent feedback categorization.
  7. Response Generation: Once the sentiment was determined, an automated response mechanism generated tailored responses based on the sentiment category, enabling hotels to respond promptly and effectively to guest feedback, whether it was to address concerns or express gratitude for positive experiences.

Industry Benefits

Large hotel chains face many challenges when managing customer feedback efficiently. Collating and analyzing feedback from numerous sources across various locations can be daunting.

This is where the integrated system, combining Property Management Systems (PMS) with sentiment analysis, emerges as a game-changer. Its advantages are manifold, with the ability to provide tailored responses and targeted actions as a crucial benefit. Hotels can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty by swiftly identifying and addressing guest concerns.

The system has the potential to streamline operations, enabling hotels to allocate resources more effectively, make data-driven decisions, and ultimately, deliver exceptional guest experiences consistently.

CI Global – Improving Customer Experience, One Feedback at a Time

Integrating Property Management Systems (PMS) with sentiment analysis represents an advancement in the hospitality industry. Our commitment to helping our clients realize their goal of enhancing customer feedback management and improving guest satisfaction has led to the development of a sophisticated system that empowers hotels to navigate the challenges of data collection and analysis efficiently. With the ability to provide tailored responses and targeted actions, our integrated solution promises to elevate the guest experience and streamline hotel operations.

Unlock the potential for innovation and transformation in your industry with our state-of-the-art offerings. Visit CI Global today and revolutionize your business’s approach to data-driven decision-making.

Microservices Implementation in a Ticket Resolution Platform

What is Microservices Architecture?

Microservices Architecture is a modern way to design software where an application is split into small, separate parts called “services.” Each service handles a specific task or feature, working like building blocks that fit together. Unlike traditional big programs, these services can be developed and updated independently. This setup brings benefits such as faster development, as different teams can work on different services simultaneously. It also makes the application more flexible because each service can use the best tools. If one service fails, the whole application doesn’t break, which increases reliability. This approach is popular because it matches the fast-paced needs of today’s software world, where quick changes and efficient teamwork are key.

Why are Microservices most sought after?

Microservices architecture is gaining traction, and more companies are adopting it due to its innovative way of creating software. Imagine a puzzle where each piece is a separate part of the program – that’s how microservices work. People like it because it helps with making big software projects more manageable. Teams can work on different pieces at the same time, which speeds up development. It also makes the software flexible because each piece can be built using the best tools. If one piece has a problem, the whole software doesn’t break, making it more stable. This approach is like having a toolbox full of tools for different jobs instead of just one tool. In a fast-changing world where technology moves quickly, microservices help teams work better together and create adaptable and reliable software.

How CIG Implemented Microservices for a Project?

infographic

  1. CI Global aimed to enhance efficiency in the electronics company’s CRM software through microservices architecture.
  2. Challenges stemming from a complex monolithic application’s intricacy and agility limitations prompted CI Global to adopt a more modern approach.
  3. The transformation began by meticulously identifying distinct business functions of the electronics company and dismantling them into independent microservices.
  4. Each microservice operated autonomously with its own technology stack, whether for customer management, financial analytics, or reporting.
  5. This architectural shift allowed seamless scalability, enabling targeted resource allocation where needed.
  6. The change expedited development velocity, empowering teams to tackle separate microservices simultaneously.
  7. The outcome was heightened adaptability to market shifts, efficient resource utilization, and improved fault tolerance.
  8. This accomplishment laid the groundwork for future organizational projects, significantly reducing the need for comprehensive regression testing through the ability to build only the relevant changed parts.

Service Identification and Decomposition

During the transition of the legacy CRM solution to a microservices architecture, CI Global undertook a pivotal phase known as service identification and decomposition. In this critical stage, CI Global thoroughly examined the electronics company’s existing monolithic application. The primary goal was to identify discrete business functionalities and components that could be effectively isolated into individual microservices. This breakdown involved the creation of specialized microservices catering to various tasks, including user authentication, order processing, inventory management, and customer data management. Each microservice was crafted to encapsulate a distinct business function, fostering a sense of modularity and self-sufficiency. Adopting this approach streamlined the development process, empowering development teams to concentrate on specific microservices without inadvertently affecting others.

Deployment and Scalability

The adoption of microservices architecture by CI Global extended to the critical domains of deployment and scalability.. Each microservice was encapsulated by harnessing the capabilities of Docker containers, guaranteeing a uniform and dependable deployment experience across diverse environments. This containerized approach streamlined the deployment process and effectively mitigated potential inconsistencies that could arise.

Consequently, this methodology enabled CI Global to allocate resources prudently, a dynamic feature that resulted in optimized performance during heightened demand and efficient resource utilization during more subdued phases. The strategic incorporation of Docker into their framework facilitated a smooth deployment mechanism. This architectural shift rendered their CRM solution highly adaptable, resilient, and well-equipped to navigate the evolving landscape of market dynamics.

CI Global – Empowering Your Future with Agile Microservice

The transformation led by CI Global from a legacy CRM solution to a microservices architecture stands as a remarkable testament to their commitment to innovation and efficiency. Through careful service identification, decomposition, and strategic deployment, CI Global revitalized the electronics company’s CRM system and revolutionized its entire approach to software development. Installing microservices facilitated faster development cycles, enhanced scalability, and improved fault tolerance. This transition empowered CI Global to respond swiftly to market dynamics and customer needs, ultimately delivering a more agile, adaptable, and customer-centric CRM solution. To discover more about CI Global’s transformative services and how they can redefine your technological landscape, we invite you to contact our team today. Embrace the future of software solutions with CI Global.

Development Using Microsoft Fabric

In the dynamic landscape of data-driven decision-making, Microsoft Fabric emerges as a beacon of innovation, poised to revolutionize how we approach analytics. This transformative platform introduces the concept of unified analytics, seamlessly weaving together various data tools under the umbrella of a single, cohesive ecosystem. At its core lies the robust OneLake architecture, an architectural marvel that simplifies data management and optimization. Imagine a virtual data lake consolidating structured and unstructured data, offering a consolidated view that fuels insights.

This informative blog unravels the essence of Microsoft Fabric, exploring its unified analytics approach and the game-changing OneLake architecture, all set to propel businesses into a new era of analytics prowess.

“In the past five to 10 years, substantial innovation has resulted in a wide array of new technologies in the modern data stack. However, this has led to significant fragmentation, with countless products and open-source solutions available. Many data and analytics tools maintain isolated data silos. Customers express frustration at the integration challenges and costs, highlighting a consistent desire to move beyond this integration tax.” – Arun Ulag, Microsoft’s corporate VP for Azure Data.

How To Get Started

Setting Up Your Environment:

Installation and Creation:

Prerequisites For Development

Prerequisites for development in Microsoft Fabric encompass the strategic considerations that guide businesses toward harnessing its capabilities. Fabric shines when businesses seek streamlined analytics, unifying diverse data sources and eliminating the fragmentation that can hinder insights. The question becomes not only when but also why businesses should adopt Fabric.

Fabric is a solution tailored for those aiming to transcend conventional reporting, unlocking predictive capabilities, and empowered decision-making. When evaluating Fabric adoption, businesses should consider their data landscape, the complexity of existing analytics infrastructure, and the potential for rapid time-to-value. With Fabric, the promise of a unified analytics ecosystem, simplified development, and actionable insights converge, providing a solid foundation for data-led growth and addressing the evolving demands of today’s data-driven landscape.

Development – Building Connectors In OneLake

Development in Microsoft Fabric unveils the Power of OneLake, an all-encompassing SaaS data lake that brings data synergy to life. Synapse Data Engineering takes the lead, providing the necessary technology to build connectors that seamlessly integrate structured and unstructured data into the fabric of insights. Synapse Data Engineering leverages distributed computing capabilities to process large datasets quickly and efficiently. It allows you to build data pipelines, schedule jobs, and automate workflows, enabling a seamless data flow from source to destination.

Data lakehouse becomes the bedrock, accommodating diverse data formats under one roof. The process follows the familiar pattern of building gateways to sources, channeling data into the lakehouse. The transformative shift lies in Fabric’s coherence; gone are the days of scattered data warehouses, disparate PowerBI deployments, and multiple portals. Within the fabric’s embrace, the PowerBI consumes data directly from the lakehouse, building visuals that unravel insights in a unified and intuitive manner.

Building PowerBI Dashboards With Microsoft Fabric

Building Power BI Dashboards within the Microsoft Fabric ecosystem brings a new dimension to data visualization. One of the remarkable aspects is its user-friendly nature – it automatically generates insightful visuals, eliminating the need for a data science expert to write complex code. With a no-code approach available in Fabric, business users can harness the power of data visualization without technical barriers. Leveraging Power BI in Microsoft Fabric allows for the creation of stunning dashboards that clearly and effectively showcase data-driven insights.

The unified analytics fabric provides a centralized data repository, ensuring the visuals are based on accurate and up-to-date information. This streamlines decision-making processes by presenting real-time information in an easily digestible format. Users can drill down into data points, filter information dynamically, and interact with visuals to uncover hidden patterns and trends. This interactivity empowers users to explore data from various angles, extracting valuable insights and contributing to informed business decisions.

Using Microsoft Fabric for RubiCube

Revolutionze your data-led growth strategy as you use RubiCube which unlocks the potential of Microsoft Fabric. Leverage Retail POS integrations, where REST APIs become your bridge to connect critical systems like CRMs, POS, and ERPs such as Sage Intacct, Sage 300, MS D365, and NetSuite. Harness the power of Microsoft Fabric’s unified analytics ecosystem to streamline and automate data flow, ensuring crucial insights reach stakeholders at the right time.

But it doesn’t stop there. Elevate your data-driven decision-making with meticulously crafted Sales dashboards in PowerBI. Visualize demand-supply patterns, predict sales capacities, and forecast revenue with precision. Microsoft Fabric empowers you to harness the AI-driven capabilities of RubiCube, paving the way for informed strategic choices. Unveil new dimensions of growth by utilizing the dynamic synergy between Microsoft Fabric, RubiCube, and PowerBI, and stay ahead in the competitive landscape.

CI Global – Bridging The Gap Between Users And Developers

In a world driven by data, Microsoft Fabric emerges as a transformative force that empowers businesses to harness the true potential of their information. The possibilities are boundless, from creating unified SaaS data lakes with OneLake to seamlessly building PowerBI dashboards for insightful visualizations.

If you’re eager to embark on this journey of analytics transformation and data-driven success, visit CI Global’s website today. As a leading IT solutions company, CI Global stands ready to guide you through the intricate landscapes of modern analytics, ensuring you uncover opportunities, make informed decisions, and propel your business forward. Embrace the power of Microsoft Fabric and discover a new era of data-led growth with CI Global.

Building An Automation Test Framework For Windows-Based ERP

In the versatile domain of software development, maintaining the integrity and functionality of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is a paramount concern. However, the task becomes increasingly complex for companies relying on ERPs, facing the constant challenge of testing with frequent product updates and multiple versions. Interestingly, recent statistics reveal that the tide is shifting as companies recognize the transformative power of automation testing. More than 24% of businesses have already embraced automation, automating 50% or more of their test cases, witnessing unprecedented efficiency gains. An additional 33% aspire to automate between 50% to 75% of their test cases, while 21% aim to take automation to even greater heights, covering more than 75% of their test cases.

This case study delves into the world of automation testing as a transformative solution to tackle these challenges head-on. We spotlight a mobile warehouse and manufacturing automation solutions provider leveraging Sage 100 —the backbone of their operations.

Problem Statement: Meeting Regression Testing Challenges With Limited Time

The mobile warehouse and manufacturing solutions provider faced a formidable testing challenge. With each Sage product update or Windows update that rolls out periodically, the need for thorough regression testing became critical to ensure product compliance and functionality. Furthermore, the solutions provider grappled with the burden of testing not just one but 32 different versions of their ERP with limited resources—all within a tight 45-day deadline for the 100+ features they offered. Developed in legacy technologies, there wasn’t any readymade framework available for testing.

The sheer volume of testing required for each update and version posed a significant strain on their testing resources and time. The traditional manual testing approach proved inadequate and time-consuming, making it imperative to seek an innovative solution that would enhance testing efficiency and enable them to meet their demanding testing timelines.

Solution: Custom Proprietary Automation Framework

In response to the arduous testing challenges, our experts introduced a groundbreaking solution—the development of a custom proprietary automation framework using Maestro. This innovative framework was meticulously designed to cater specifically to the complexities of the Windows-based ERP integrated with Sage 100, leveraging the ProvideX technology.

Given Sage 100’s longstanding presence in the industry, the products were deeply entrenched in a legacy technology environment. Our custom proprietary framework proved to be the perfect antidote to address the intricacies and challenges posed by this legacy system. Embracing the capabilities of Maestro and WinDriver, our solution transformed the testing landscape, delivering a robust and scalable approach to tackle their unique Windows-based product testing challenges and keeping up with the regular product updates.

Benefits Of Our Solution

The implementation of the custom proprietary automation framework using Maestro resulted in a series of significant benefits, revolutionizing their testing processes.

A Paradigm Shift In Testing Efficiency

Prior to the implementation of automation testing, the testing process for each of the 32 versions of their similar products was an arduous 7-day endeavor, leaving them with a daunting challenge to complete all testing within a strict 45-day cutoff. The manual testing approach demanded significant time and resources, making it an uphill battle to meet the tight deadline.

With the advent of the custom automation framework, the scenario underwent a remarkable transformation. The testing time for the entire product regression cycle was astonishingly reduced from 7 days to a mere 7 hours. This extraordinary time-saving enabled testing to be completed for all 32 products within the allocated timeframe and achieve resource optimization—reallocating valuable human resources to other vital development activities. Embracing automation paved the way for a new era of efficiency, productivity, and unparalleled success, propelling Scanco to the forefront of its industry.

CI Global – Embrace Automation, Embrace Excellence!

With their custom automation framework powered by Maestro, the customer conquered update challenges, achieving unmatched efficiency and meeting strict testing deadlines. As automation experts, CI Global offers exceptional testing capabilities akin to customer’s success. With a proven track record in optimizing software development lifecycles, CI Global tailors services to your needs. Elevate testing efficiency, streamline processes, and enhance product quality. Take the first step towards transforming your testing process—visit CI Global’s website or contact them today.

Embrace automation’s power for unparalleled success.

Why Building Automation Testing Frameworks are Key to Accelerating the Testing Process?

Imagine the scenario: After weeks of dedicated effort, you and your team have achieved a remarkable milestone – the development of an exciting software application that has generated immense excitement among stakeholders. However, before celebrating, the daunting task of testing looms ahead. As a software developer or tester, you are well aware of the immense pressure to meet tight deadlines while upholding impeccable software quality.

Evolution Of Software Testing

Software testing is crucial for ensuring quality and a smooth user experience. However, manual testing can be slow, repetitive, and prone to errors. Automation testing solves these issues by using frameworks, tools, and scripts to automatically execute test cases, eliminating the need for manual intervention.

By harnessing the power of automation, testing processes can be accelerated and streamlined, saving time, effort, and resources. This means higher productivity, faster release cycles, and improved software quality. So, let’s understand automation testing and discover why it is a game-changer for software development.

How Does Automation Testing Work?

Building automation testing frameworks are essential for accelerating the testing process by streamlining and optimizing test execution. To understand their significance, let’s explore the automation testing process.

  1. Test Environment Setup

    Testers configure servers, install the necessary software, and prepare databases to create a testing environment that closely resembles the production or target environment.

  2. Test Script Development

    Testers then create automated test scripts with instructions that simulate user interactions and validate expected outcomes. These scripts capture various test scenarios and workflows.

  3. Test Data Management

    The testers create and manage datasets the test scripts use to validate different scenarios and business rules. Test data enables comprehensive test coverage and the evaluation of various input combinations.

  4. Test Execution

    They execute the automated tests, where the test scripts simulate user actions, interact with the application’s interface or APIs, and validate expected outcomes.

Automation frameworks provide mechanisms for executing tests on different environments and devices.

Discover how to enhance your software development and delivery through automation testing. Visit CI Global today and explore our comprehensive range of services.

Organizations adopting automation testing frameworks witnessed a remarkable boost in efficiency, with an average reduction of 30% in overall testing efforts. By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, testers were able to focus on more critical aspects of testing, such as exploratory testing and analyzing test results.

Benefits Of Automation Testing

Automation testing offers several benefits that contribute to improved software quality and development efficiency.

Efficiency And Time Savings

Automation testing offers a significant benefit in eliminating repetitive manual effort, leading to faster test cycles. Unlike manual testing, automation allows the creation of consistent and accurate test scripts, saving time and reducing the risk of human errors. The frameworks enable scheduled and event-triggered test executions, ensuring round-the-clock testing for maximum efficiency.

This efficiency allows testers to focus on critical aspects of software quality assurance, further enhancing the overall testing process.

Enhanced Test Coverage And Consistency

Automation testing ensures enhanced test coverage and consistency, which is critical for software quality. Testers achieve comprehensive coverage with efficient and consistent execution of numerous test cases. Unlike manual testing’s limitations, automation allows for extensive test suites, including edge cases and negative scenarios.

Consistent test execution and validation deliver reliable and reproducible results by following predefined scripts, eliminating human errors, and validating software functionality consistently. This boosts testing accuracy and reliability and ultimately improves software quality.

Regression Testing And Early Defect Detection

Regression testing is vital for validating existing functionalities after software updates, but manual execution is time-consuming and resource-intensive. Automation testing frameworks efficiently and accurately perform regression tests by automating validated test cases. Early defect detection allows prompt issue resolution, reducing costs and effort in later stages of software development.

Automation testing ensures software stability and reliability through efficient regression testing, benefiting the development lifecycle.

Cost Savings And ROI

Automation testing’s cost-effectiveness results from eradicating repetitive manual work and reducing human errors. Though there’s an initial investment in setting up frameworks and test scripts, long-term savings arise from reduced testing time, resource utilization, and defect resolution costs. Automation also boosts ROI through faster time-to-market, improved software quality, and increased customer satisfaction.

Implementing automation frameworks brings lasting benefits, such as heightened productivity, reduced maintenance effort, and improved scalability, resulting in higher ROI for organizations embracing automation testing.

Get your edge in the market with the benefits of automation testing in your development cycle. Get in touch with us today to know more.

Download this checklist to understand and identify areas where
automation testing can significantly benefit your organization.

CI GLOBAL – Modernize, Optimize, Succeed

When embracing automation testing, CI Global is a trusted partner ready to guide you through your modernization journey. Our team of experts are dedicated to helping businesses like yours achieve seamless transitions, enhanced functionality, and increased productivity. Don’t miss the opportunity to revolutionize your operations and stay ahead in today’s competitive landscape. Visit the CI Global website now to discover how our comprehensive solutions and industry-leading expertise can drive your business forward. Partnering with CI Global today takes the first step towards a successful modernization.

Revolutionizing Sales Commission Management: A Case Study of CI Global’s Product Development

Commission management is crucial for incentivizing and rewarding performance. But there are several challenges organizations face in managing commissions. Some common challenges include

One of the leading quick service chains based out of New York with over 23 retail locations was facing the challenge of tracking and managing sales commissions. They reached out to CI Global for a solution for automating their commission payout process. This case study demonstrates how we achieved this by evolving the solution into a software product.

Calculating and controlling sales commissions was a daunting task in front of the quick service chain.

As the requirement analysis was done, the key factors for commission calculation were identified. The following commission aspects presented issues for the business::

Integration to the Sage 300 ERP was critical for this customer as they wanted a solution that would service their commission management workflows end-to-end.
Intensive user testing and market research activities were carried out to pinpoint the problems and difficulties the sales team experienced. The solution was built upon software that was developed after several rounds of discussion with the customer. The focus was on building an automated solution with integrations to accounting software. What started as building a solution for solving the challenges for a single customer turned out to be a potential for the development of a full-fledged product.

CI Global created Commission Manager, a software product to expedite and simplify the commission management process after realizing the need for an all-encompassing solution in the market. Commission Manager improved the commission management workflow by automating multiple commission criteria calculations.Commission Manager needed to be adaptable and scalable while still having the capability to integrate with accounting software to provide an end-to-end commission management experience.

Manual errors were removed with automated data entry through Sage 300 ERP integration. The solution enabled a fair and transparent commission payout process for the sales staff. This increased the team satisfaction score within the organization and enabled the sales staff to perform much better.

Upon implementing Commission Manager, the quick-service chain’s complex and time-consuming commission calculations were more straightforward and accurate.

The quick-service chain’s sales commission management procedure underwent a dramatic shift following its adoption. The introduction of the Commission Manager changed the game by making complex and time-consuming commission calculations more straightforward and accurate.

Commission Manager improved the commission management workflow by:

Manual errors were greatly minimized, and the solution made sure that the sales staff would get fair and transparent commission payments. The quick service chain’s problems were remedied by adopting a Commission Manager, allowing them to concentrate on their primary duties and stimulate sales growth.

The automation and user-configurable capabilities made the commission administration process simple and painless, freeing the sales staff to focus on driving sales. The customer acknowledged the following benefits:

CIG: Identifying problems, building solutions

As organizations grow, manual processes can become increasingly challenging to manage. Building a software product offers numerous advantages and opportunities for organizations. The case study highlights how software products can be built to address specific needs or provide a solution to a customer’s pain point. While building a software product involves investment in time, resources, and expertise, its benefits in terms of customization, competitive advantage, revenue generation, efficiency, and improved customer experience can make it a worthwhile endeavor for many organizations.

With 25+ years of experience in ERP, CI Global has been developing products in integration with ERP. Reach out to us today to get your product development started.

Demystifying Add-on Development: Why Building Add-ons Is Not As Challenging As It Seems

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, ERP’s are constantly being enhanced and expanded to meet the diverse needs of businesses and customers. One powerful way to extend the functionality of existing software solutions is by developing add-ons. While building add-ons may initially seem challenging, this blog aims to demystify the process and highlight its benefits. We will explore the journey of software addon development, the importance of understanding customer personas, and the specifics of add-on creation. By the end, you’ll discover that building add-ons is not as complicated as it seems.

With a good understanding of ERP and market needs, ability to add functionalities that simplifies customer processes, structured development process and a deep understanding of customer personas ISV’s can develop add-on/products opening up a new revenue stream in the ERP marketplace.

This knowledge is used to discover current software gaps and determine the scope of the ERP add-on. Understanding the complexities of ERP systems allows organizations to create add-ons that seamlessly connect and increase existing capabilities, resulting in a smooth and efficient user experience.

Understanding the customer persona: A business perspective

Businesses may ensure improved user happiness and higher adoption rates by designing add-ons to individual client requirements. This customer-centric strategy promotes the add-on as a beneficial solution, significantly increasing the value of the customer’s ERP system.

A modular design approach is essential when it comes to developing add-ons. Creating add-ons as standalone modules increases flexibility and simplifies maintenance for both software suppliers and end users. It enables organizations to constantly extend and improve their ERP systems by adding additional modules that interface smoothly with the core system. Furthermore, extensive testing of the add-on ensures its dependability, performance, and compatibility with the ERP system.

Adding functions, adding functionality: Making an add-on

This section focuses on creating an add-on, which includes detecting current software gaps, defining the scope of the add-on, and smoothly integrating it with the core ERP system. Effective communication and collaboration between software suppliers and add-on developers are critical for creating successful add-ons.

Module development is essential in the creation of add-ons. It includes several crucial components:

  1. Module Development Process: Module development involves designing and building specific components or functionalities to enhance the core ERP system. This process follows the software development life cycle, including requirements gathering, design, coding, testing, and deployment.
  2. Modular Design: Modular design is crucial for developing flexible, scalable, and easily maintainable add-ons. Breaking down the add-on into smaller, self-contained modules enables efficient management and updates. It allows for customization and future enhancements as per evolving needs.
  3. Scalability: Add-ons should be designed to accommodate potential growth and changing business requirements. Ensuring scalability allows the solution to adapt and evolve alongside the ERP system and the organization.
  4. Thorough Testing: Rigorous testing ensures the add-on functions properly, integrates seamlessly with the core ERP system, and avoids compatibility or performance issues. Comprehensive testing guarantees a reliable and robust add-on that meets user expectations.

Before delving into the add-on development process, it is essential to acknowledge the critical role of ERP knowledge. This knowledge allows businesses to identify the existing gaps or limitations in the ERP system and develop add-ons that seamlessly integrate and extend its capabilities. ERP knowledge is the foundation for designing add-ons that address specific customer requirements and enhance the overall ERP experience.

By combining ERP knowledge with effective add-on development practices, businesses can leverage the power of modular design, scalability, and thorough testing to create valuable add-ons. These add-ons bridge the existing gaps in the ERP system and provide flexibility and easier maintenance for software providers and end-users. The result is a more efficient and adaptable ERP solution that aligns with evolving business needs.

CIG: Leading and solving your problems the software way

CI Global (CIG), a tech-first innovation company, specializes in add-on development for ERP ecosystem. With years of experience and a team of skilled professionals, CIG is well-equipped to solve complex business challenges through software solutions.

By leveraging CIG’s expertise, businesses can tap into their add-ons and experience significant improvements in efficiency, productivity, and overall performance. In conclusion, understanding the critical role of ERP knowledge and customer personas is key to successful add-on development. Embrace the power of add-ons and unlock new opportunities for your business today.

Is the transition for SMBs from an outdated system to the newest software seamless?

Staying ahead of the curve is crucial for businesses of all sizes in today’s fast-paced environment. Organizations must adapt by embracing the latest software solutions to be competitive as technology develops at a booming rate. Many small and medium-sized businesses are constrained by the limits of out-of-date legacy technologies. They impede their productivity and ability to function seamlessly. The hesitation to upgrade is frequently exacerbated by worries about future costs and how time-consuming upgrading will be.

This blog will highlight the various points you need to know about upgrading your software systems. We examine the crucial factors that firms must consider throughout this transition and deal with any typical difficulties they can have. We review how our knowledge and solutions help SMBs surpass challenges and promote a smooth relocation process. Businesses can gain various advantages by adopting the latest software solutions, including increased productivity, improved data security, simplified operations, and the capacity to utilize cutting-edge features and capabilities.

Regarding updating their systems, SMBs may need to be more confident and concerned. We are here to help them through this transformational process. Let’s discuss the critical factors and how we can assist firms in 2023 with a seamless switch to the newest software.

Essential Elements to Pay Close Attention to When Upgrading from Older Versions to the Newest Systems

It takes careful planning to transition from an outdated system to the recent updated software,. Migrating the customization your business has and requires, is one of the crucial factors to pay particular attention to during the migration process. The compatibility of any customization with the newest software must be assured. It would be best to consider additional screens that need to be built specifically for your purposes to address the gaps.

Transfer the customization that your business needs.

During the module development process, in your previous ERP there are specific modules built to address specific use cases. 4-5 core modules are explicitly designed for ERP-specific core modules across all product lines. During the modernization journey, your personalized features will be transported to the new system including those customizations. The leap of innovation from the previous version to the new systems can meet your business needs.

ERP Product Line: Linking Current Capabilities to Your Wishlist

The Sage product line provides a wide choice of solutions to match the particular demands of your organization, which is an excellent illustration of this. It’s important to keep data transfer and add-on incorporation in mind while migrating a product. Scalability of features, mobile and web-enabled choices, and enhancing your current ERP with more data analytics are additional critical factors that you can consider while transferring custom modules.

Integrating Multiple Departments Using One Solution

Customization is essential when expanding the capabilities of the software you’re migrating towards; it helps combine several corporate divisions during the migration process. Sage provides products for several departments but might not fully meet particular use cases. When creating a comprehensive solution and ensuring a smooth transition into it, customization becomes valuable. Custom-built products enable businesses to handle departmental difficulties by altering modules to suit their workflows and data requirements. They make integrating current systems and data sources feasible, providing a smooth information flow.

Additionally, customization ensures that the solution complies with industry-specific standards for reporting and compliance. Due to its ability to fulfill industry-specific standards, interact with current systems, and cater to the demands of various departments, a customized all-in-one solution is more effective in migrating. The all-roundedness of the solution makes the transition easier, increases output, and guarantees that the solution successfully supports business operations and procedures.

CIG: Creating Innovation and Value

Your company may benefit significantly from modernization especially when it comes to updating software. Businesses can benefit from better functionality, increased productivity, and streamlined workflows. As an IT company, CIG helps with the modernization process by integrating add-ons, ensuring data integrity across old and new systems, and migrating customizations your business needs.

In conclusion, updating your organization requires moving from a legacy system to the latest systems, which may seem difficult. Planning is crucial to the process, and it is essential to pay particular attention to essential elements like new panels, and data migration. Businesses can profit from modernization and advance their operations by bridging their existing capabilities with their wishlist, utilizing all-in-one solutions, and consulting experts.

Building products for supply chain: Mobile Inventory Suite

An effective inventory management system is crucial for a functional supply chain business. Businesses must analyze their processes to understand where to estimate delays, mistakes, and inefficiencies. To analyze and break down what’s happening, an innovative approach is not just a need but a crucial part of the puzzle. This approach should solve visibility, streamline the process, and decrease operational overload. The Mobile Inventory Suite was developed with such an approach in mind.

In this case study, we will understand the processes behind MIS as we dig deeper into the problem statements and create roadmaps for supply chain inventory management. In developing a tailored solution, the key is to transform the inventory management process by comprehending business needs and pain points. Going into the crux of cross-border functionality, for example, we explore how we had to work for a Canadian client who runs a warehouse in the US and needs a solution that addresses the problem with scalability at the core.

Breaking down the common issues

Businesses frequently need help with typical problem statements and supply chain management pain points like inventory management, transportation and logistics, lack of visibility and many more. The company we focus on here is a Canadian client with a warehouse in the United states of America looking for a solution that balances size and functionality. Every warehouse has four significant steps to base its processes on: stock receipt, transfer, count, and shipment. However, their efficiency, accuracy, and overall operating performance are improved by automating laborious procedures. Businesses can seize possibilities for streamlined processes, improved inventory management, and improved supply chain efficiency by addressing the above issues.

Hypothesizing the solution

A thorough approach and plan was designed to solve the identified supply chain inventory management issues and provide a customized solution to satisfy the client’s unique demands. The journey towards a solution started with creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that included the essential features to help in transactional inventory management. It addressed the current pain points and gaps in the ERP solution the business has integrated.

The client was subsequently shown the MVP, and based on their particular warehouse operations and requirements, they offered insightful input to build a better roadmap. The MVP was continuously improved through the iterative method. The client’s input was significant in determining the development’s course, guaranteeing that the finished solution would meet their expectations and successfully handle their operations.

As the solution was being built and more features were added to address the edge cases, it progressively became a product that could be tailored to meet the needs of different supply chains. The solution’s adaptability and versatility made smooth integration with the ERP solutions of various warehouse setups and procedures possible, giving it a flexible and adaptive answer to inventory management problems.

What are the issues with transactional inventory management?

Transactional inventory management has many difficulties and constraints, which can cause inefficiencies in supply chain operations. Various system interfaces and parts cause these problems.

How did we create a software solution for a warehouse problem?

Various processes were involved in developing a customized software solution for the warehouse issue.

Along with increasing productivity, this mobile-first design enabled better visibility and accuracy throughout inventory management.

Improving efficiency through boosting transparency

The Mobile Inventory Suite increases supply chain efficiency by increasing transparency and real-time visibility in the ERP solutions that a specific company has incorporated.

These actions led to cost savings, higher client happiness, and increased productivity.

Empower your supply chain with barcode-based order entry.

The Mobile Inventory Suite offers substantial advantages to supply chain operations when barcodes are used to submit orders.

This simplified procedure eliminates human data entry, increases order correctness, and boosts supply chain operating effectiveness.

Mobile Inventory Suite: A Custom CIG Build

A comprehensive software program created to enhance inventory control inside the supply chain is called the Mobile Inventory Suite.

Success endorsements from businesses that have used the Mobile Inventory Suite to streamline processes and improve supply chain performance demonstrate how MIS has helped solve business pain points.

The CIG Edge: Identifying problems, building solutions

The case study emphasized how supply chain inventory management was essential in embracing cutting-edge software solutions. Significant advantages of the Mobile Inventory Suite include improved productivity, openness, and scalability. The system improves decision-making, streamlines operations, and boosts overall performance by utilizing barcode scanning, real-time tracking, and seamless integration. The study underlines the need to embrace technology to overcome inventory management obstacles and maintain competitiveness in the changing supply chain environment, where practical and transparent operations are crucial for success.